count eugene goblet d'alviella - lectures on the origin and growth of the conception of god (1892)

8/8/2019 Count Eugene Goblet d'Alviella - Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Conception of God (1892)

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THEOLOGICAL TRANSLATION FUND LIBRARY.A Series of Translations, the best results of recent theological investiga-tions on the Continent, conducted without reference to doctrinal considerations,and with the sole purpose of arriving at truth. Published at los 6d pervolume, but a Selection of six or more volumes muy be had at 75 per vol. nett.

v-'l. BAUR (P. C.) Church History of the First Three Cen-turies. Translated from the Third German Edition. Edited by theRev. Allan Menzies. 2 vols. 8vo. 215.

2. BAUR (F. C.) Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, his Lifeand Work, his Epistles and Doctrine. A Contribution to a CriticalHistory of Primitive Christianity. Second Edition. By the Rev. AllanMenzies. 2 vols. 215.3. BLEEK'S Lectures on the Apocalypse. Edited by the Rev

Dr. S. Davidson, ios 6d.4. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Prophets of the OldTestament. Translated by the Rev. J. Frederick Smith. 5 vols. 8vo.Each IOS 6d.5. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Psalms. Translated bythe Rev. E. Johnson, m.a. 2 vols. 8vo. Each 105 6d.6. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Book of Job, with Trans-

lation by Professor H. Ewald. Translated from the German by theRev. J. Frederick Smith, i vol. 8vo. 105 6d.7. HAUSRATH (Professor A.) History of the New Testa-ment Times. The Time of Jesus. By Dr. A. Hausrath, Professor ofTheology, Heidelberg. Translated, with the Author's sanction, from theSecond German Edition, by the Revs. C. T. Poynting and P. Quenzer.2 vols. 8vO. 215.

8. KEIM (Th.) History of Jesus of Nazara. Considered in itsconnection with the National Life of Israel, and related in detail. Trans-lated by Arthur Ransom and the Rev. E. M. Geldart. 6 vols. 8vo.Each I05 6d.

9. KUENEN (A.) The Religion of Israel to the Fall of theJewish State. Translated by A. H. May. 2nd Ed. 3 vols. 8vo. 315 6i.10. PFLEIDERER (Professor O.) The Philosophy of Religionon the Basis of its History. Translated by the Rev. Allan Menzies.

I. History of the Philosophy of Religion from Spinoza to the presentday. 2 vols. 215.II. Genetic-Speculative Philosophy of Religion. 2 vols. 215.

4 vols. 8vo. Cloth. Each los 6d.11. PFLEIDERER (Professor O.) Paulinism: a Contribution to

the History of Primitive Christian Theology. Translated by E. Peters.2 vols. 215.

12. Protestant Commentary on the New Testament; withGeneral and Special Introductions to the Books, by Lipsius, Holsten,Lang, Pfleiderer, Holtzmann, Hilgenfeld, and others. Translated by theRev. F. H. Jones. 3 vols. 8vo. 31s 6d.

13. REVILLE (Rev. Dr.) Prolegomena of the History ofReligion, with Introduction by Professor Max Muller. 105 6d.

14. SCHRAEDER (Professor) The Cuneiform Inscriptions andthe Old Testament. By Dr. Eberh. Schrader, Professor of OrientalLanguages, University of Berlin. Translated from the second EnlargedGerman Edition, with Additions by the Author, and an Introduction bythe Rev. Owen C. Whitehouse, m.a., Professor of Hebrew CheshuntCollege. 2 vols. Map. 8vo. Cloth. Each 105 6d15. ZELLER (E.) The Acts of the Apostles Critically Ex-amined. To which is prefixed Overbeck's Introduction from De Wette'sHandbook. Translated by Joseph Dare. 2 vols. 8vo. 215.


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THE HIBBERT LECTURES.1891.Count Goblet d'Alviella Lectures on the Origin andGrowth of the Idea of God. 8vo. Cloth. los 6d1888.Rev. Dr. Hatch. Lectures on the Influence of GreekId^as and Usages upon the Christian Church, edited by the Rev

Dr. Fairbairn. 8vo. Cloth. io5 6(1.1887.Professor Sayce. Lectures on the Religion of AncientAssyria and Babylonia. 8vo. Cloth. los 6i.1886.Professor J. Rhys, M.A. Lectures on Celtic Heathendom.Svo. Cloth. los 6d.1885.Professor Pfleiderer. Lectures on the Influence of theApostle Paul on the Development of Christianity. Svo. Cloth. io5 6d.1884.Professor Albert Reville. Lectures on the AncientReligions of Mexico and Peru. Svo. Cloth, los 6d.1883.The Rev. Charles Beard. Lectures on the Reforma-tion of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought andKnowledge. Svo. Cloth. io5 6d. (Cheap Edition, 45 6d).1882.Professor Kuenen. Lectures on National Religionsand Universal Religions. Svo. Cloth. 105 6i.1881.T. W. Rhys Davids. Lectures on some Points in theHistory of Indian Buddhism. Svo. Cloth. los 6d.1880.M. Ernest Renan. On the Influence of the Institutions,Thought and Culture of Rome on Christianity, and the Development ofthe Catholic Church. Svo. Cloth. los 6d. (Cheap Edition, 2s 6d).1879.P. Le Page Renouf. Lectures on the Religion of AncientEgypt. 2nd Edition. Svo. Cloth. io5 6d.1878.Professor Max Miiller. Lectures on the Religions ofIndia. Svo. Cloth. los 6d.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY THE HIBBERT TRUSTEES.Wallis.The Cosmology of the Rigveda: An Essay. By H. w.Wallis, M.A., Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Svo. Cloth. 5s.Poole.Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, inthe departments of Theology and Ecclesiastical Politics. By Reginald

Lane Poole, m.a., Balliol College, Oxford, ph.d. Leipzig. Svo. Cloth,los 6d.Stokes.The Objectivity of Truth. By George J. Stokes, b.a..Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist, Trinity College, Dublin, lateHibbert Travelling Scholar. Svo. Cloth. 55.Evans.An Essay on Assyriology. By George Evans, m.a., Hibbert

Fellow. With an Assyriology Tablet in Cuneiform type. Svo. Cloth. 5s.Schurman.Kantian Ethics and the Ethics of Evolution.A Critical Study by J. Gould Schurman, m.a., d.sc. Professor of Logic

and Metaphysics in Acadia College, Nova Scotia. Svo. Cloth. 55.Macan.The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. An Essay, in ThreeChapters. By Reginald W. Macan, Christ Church, Oxiord. Svo.Cloth. 5s.


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THEOLOGICAL TRANSLATION FUND LIBRARY.A. Series of Translations, the best results of recent theological investiga-tions on the Continent, conducted without reference to doctrinal considerations,and with the sole purpose of arriving at truth. Published at los 6d pervolume, but a Selection of six or more volumes muy be had at 75 per vol. nett.^1. BAUB, (P. C.) Church History of the First Three Cen-

turies. Translated from the Third German Edition. Edited by theRev. Allan Menzies. 2 vols. 8vo. 21s.2. BAUR (P. C.) Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, his Lifeand Work, his Epistles and Doctrine. A Contribution to a CriticalHistory of Primitive Christianity. Second Edition. By the Rev. AllanMenzies. 2 vols. 215.3. BLEEK'S Lectures on the Apocalypse. Edited by the Rev

Dr. S. Davidson, ios bd.4. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Prophets of the OldTestament. Translated by the Rev. J. Frederick Smith. 5 vols. 8vo.Each IOS 6d.5. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Psalms. Translated bythe Rev. E. Johnson, m.a. 2 vols. 8vo. Each 105 6d.6. EWALD (H.) Commentary on the Book of Job, with Trans-

lation by Professor H. Ewald. Translated from the German by theRev. J. Frederick Smith, i vol. 8vo. 105 bd.7. HAUSRATH (Professor A.) History of the New Testa-ment Times. The Time of Jesus. By Dr. A. Hausrath, Professor ofTheology, Heidelberg. Translated, with the Author's sanction, from theSecond German Edition, by the Revs. C. T. Poynting and P. Quenzer.2 vols. 8vO. 215.

8. KEIM (Th.) History of Jesus of Nazara. Considered in itsconnection with the National Life of Israel, and related in detail. Trans-lated by Arthur Ransom and the Rev. E. M. Geldart. 6 vols. 8vo.Each IOS 6d.

9. KUENEN (A.) The Religion of Israel to the Fall of theJewish State. Translated by A. H. May. 2nd Ed. 3 vols. 8vo. 31s 6d.10. PFLEIDERER (Professor O.) The Philosophy of Religionon the Basis of its History. Translated by the Rev. Allan Menzies.

I, History of the Philosophy of Religion from Spinoza to the presentday. 2 vols. 21s.II. Genetic-Speculative Philosophy of Religion. 2 vols. 21s.

4 vols. 8vo. Cloth. Each los 6d.11. PFLEIDERER (Professor O.) Paulinism: a Contribution tothe History of Primitive Christian Theology. Translated by E. Peters.

2 vols. 21S.12. Protestant Commentary on the New Testament; with

General and Special Introductions to the Books, by Lipsius, Holsten,Lang, Pfleiderer, Holtzmann, Hilgenfeld, and others. Translated by theRev. F. H. Jones. 3 vols. 8vo. 31s 6d.

13. REVILLE (Rev. Dr.) Prolegomena of the History ofReligion, with Introduction by Professor Max Muller. ios bd.

14. SCHRAEDER (Professor) The Cuneiform Inscriptions andthe Old Testament. By Dr. Eberh. Schrader, Professor of OrientalLanguages, University of Berlin. Translated from the second EnlargedGerman Edition, with Additions by the Author, and an Introduction bythe Rev. Owen C. Whitehouse, m.a.. Professor of Hebrew CheshuntCollege. 2 vols. Map. 8vo. Cloth. Each los 6d15. ZELLER (E.) The Acts of the Apostles Critically Ex-amined. To which is prefixed Overbeck's Introduction from De Wette'sHandbook. Translated by Joseph Dare. 2 vols. 8vo. 215.


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THE HIBBERT LECTURES.1891.Count Goblet d'Alviella Lectures on the Origin andGrowth of the Idea of God. 8vo. Cloth. io5 6d1888.Rev. Dr. Hatch. Lectures on the Influence of Greek

Id^as and Usages upon the Christian Church, edited by the RevDr. Fairbairn. 8vo. Cloth. los 6d.

1887.Professor Sayce. Lectures on the Religion of AncientAssyria and Babylonia. 8vo. Cloth. los 6d.1886.Professor J. Rhys, M.A. Lectures on Celtic Heathendom.

Svo. Cloth. los 6d.1885.Professor Pfleiderer. Lectures on the Influence of theApostle Paul on the Development of Christianity. Svo. Cloth. io5 6d.1884.Professor Albert Reville. Lectures on the Ancient

Religions of Mexico and Peru. Svo. Cloth. io5 6d.1883 The Rev. Charles Beard. Lectures on the Reforma-

tion of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought andKnowledge. Svo. Cloth. los 6d. (Cheap Edition, 45 6d).

1882.Professor Kuenen. Lectures on National Religionsand Universal Religions. Svo. Cloth. los 6d,1881.T.W. Rhys Davids. Lectures on some Points in theHistory of Indian Buddhism. Svo. Cloth. 10s 6d.1880.M. Ernest Renan. On the Influence of the Institutions,Thought and Culture of Rome on Christianity, and the Development of

the Catholic Church. Svo. Cloth. los 6d. (Cheap Edition, 2s 6^).1879.P. Le Page Renouf. Lectures on the Religion of Ancient

Egypt. 2nd Edition. Svo. Cloth. los 6d.1878.Professor Max Miiller. Lectures on the Religions of

India. Svo. Cloth. los 6d.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY THE HIBBERT TRUSTEES.Wallis.The Cosmology of the Rigveda: An Essay. By H. w.Wallis, M.A., Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Svo. Cloth. 5s.Poole.Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, in

the departments of Theology and Ecclesiastical Politics. By ReginaldLane Poole, m.a., Balliol College, Oxford, ph.d. Leipzig. Svo. Cloth.los 6d.

Stokes.The Objectivity of Truth. By George J. Stokes, b.a.,Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist, Trinity College, Dublin, lateHibbert Travelling Scholar. Svo. Cloth. 55.

Evans.An Essay on Assyriology. By George Evans, m.a., HibbertFellow. With an Assyriology Tablet in Cuneiform type. Svo. Cloth. 5s.

Schvirman.Kantian Ethics and the Ethics of Evolution.A Critical Study by J. Gould Schurman, m.a., d.sc. Professor of Logicand Metaphysics in Acadia College, Nova Scotia. Svo. Cloth. 5s.Macan.The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. An Essay, in ThreeChapters. By Reginald W. Macan, Christ Church, Oxiord. Svo.Cloth. 5s.


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MR. HERBERT SPENCER'S WORKS.THE DOCTRINE OP EVOLUTION.

FIRST PRINCIPLES, gth Thousand. 165.PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. 4th Thousand. 2 vols. 345.PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 5th Thousand. 2 vols. 36s.PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. Vol. I. 4th Thousand. 21s.

Vol. II. 3rd Thousand. i8s.(POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 3rd Thousand. Separately, 12^.)ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 2nd Thousand. 5s.THE DATA OF ETHICS. 5th Thousand. 85.

JUSTICE. 85.Other Works.

THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. Library Edition (the gth). 8vo.I OS 6d.EDUCATION. 6th Thousand. 6s. Also cheap Edition. 26th Thousand.25 6d.SOCIAL STATICS. Abridged and revised. MAN v. STATE. Cloth.I OS.

ESSAYS. 3 vols. New Edition (each los.) 30s.THE MAN versus THE STATE. Cheap Edition, loth Thousand, is.THE FACTORS OF EVOLUTION. Cloth. 2s 6d.

Also Mr. SPENCER'SDESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY,

COMPILED AND ABSTRACTED BV

Prof. Duncan, Dr. Scheppig, and Mr. Collier.Folio, Boards.

1. English2. Ancient American Races3. Lowest Races, Negritos, Polynesians4. African Races5. Asiatic Races

...


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THE HIBBERT LECTURES,1891.


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THE HIBBERT LECTURES, iSgi.

LECTURESON THE

ORIGIN AND GROWTHCONCEPTIOIT OF GOD

AS ILLUSTRATED BY

ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY.BY

COUNT GOBLET D'ALVIELLA,PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS.

WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON;And 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.

181)2.


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TOTHE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS,

FOUNDED BY PRIVATE INITIATIVEON THE PRINCIPLE OF FREE INQUIRY,


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PREFACE.

Many attempts have been made to trace the develop-ment of the conception of God; and, apart from thework of the theologians, the anthropologists and his-torians have often been led by their respective methodsto widely different solutions of the problem. It hasappeared to me, however, that these methods do notexclude each other ; nay, that each finds in the other itsnecessary supplement.

I may be reproached for associating such differentmethods together, and I have already been told that assoon as we apply what is known as the comparativemethod to the investigation of the origins of Eeligion,or endeavour to trace its pre-historic development, oreven to elucidate the evolution of Eeligion in general,by reference to the fortunes of the several creeds, wehave already left the domain of history, and enteredupon that of pure philosophy.

I should myself prefer to give a wider signification tothe word history, and make it include all attempts torecover the past of mankind ; but if we are to restrict itsapplication to facts of the "historic age" of civilizedcommunities, then history must assuredly be supple-mented by other studies which can throw light upon a


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PREFACE. IX

of the Hibbert Trust and the promoters of the HibbertLectures.

I have only to add that I regard this work as a con-tinuation of my previous studies on "The ContemporaryEvolution of Eeligious Thought in England, America,and India. '^ ^ Having described the most advanced formsof Eeligion amongst the enlightened minds of our age,I felt a special interest in investigating the gradualdevelopment of these forms and the relation in whichthey stand to the lowest manifestations of religious cul-ture. Enormous as the distance appears, it does notprove impossible to trace the road that leads from theone extreme to the other; and here again we find anillustration of that adage which is now coming to domi-nate every branch of knowledge, Natura non facit saltus.

I ought to express my gratitude to the HibbertTrustees for having offered me this unique opportunityof developing my views before an English public whosehospitable welcome I shall always remember. But whatadequate terms can I find, when M. Ernest Eenan him-self described a similar invitation as " one of the rewardsof his life"?

I have also to offer my special thanks to Mr. Wick-steed for the patience and accuracy with which he hasexecuted the translation of these Lectures.

Goblet d'Alviella.Court St. Etienne, Dec. 1891.' English Translation by the Kev. J. Moden. London : Williams

and Norgate, 1885.


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Erratum.P. 5, line 10, for " Boechoven" read " Bachofeii."

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.The references to Tylor's " Primitive Culture" have, through inadvert-

ence, been made to the first edition (1871), except in a few cases.The following table will enable possessors of any edition to find the

passages referred to.On p. 56 the passage referred to is ii. 285 of the editions of 1873 and 1891.

83112114115117140189190

ii. 300ii. 178 sq. ,ii. 177 sq. ii. 174ii. 216ii. 349 ,ii. 69 of the edition of 1871.ii. 73


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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGEPreface ... ... ... ... ... 'vii

Lecture I.

ON METHODS OF RESEAECH INTO THE PRE-HISTORICMANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION.Religious beliefs and institutions discovered at the dawn of

history.Inability of the historic method to reconstructtheir origins.Recourse to the comparative method neces-sary ... ... ... ... ... ... 1

Reasons for believing that the general evolution of humanityhas been progressive; and inferences as to our humbleorigins.Refutation of the theory that man began at ahigh level of culture.Point of departure of the religiousdevelopment.Estimate of the value of the ancient tradi-tions and Sacred Books of the several peoples ... ... 512

Conclusions drawn from philology.Essence and form of theconceptions formulated at the dawn of languages.Ina-bility of their framers to formulate abstract ideas ... 12 14

Data of pre-historic archseology.Funeral rites in the mam-moth age; in the reindeer age; in the neolithic period. 'The megaliths. Scull-trepanning. Traces of idolatry ;the worship of the axe.The method of pre-historic archaeo-logy 1530

Folk-lore. Religious survivals in popular customs; in socialusages; in ecclesiastical liturgies ... ... 3038


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XU TABLE OF CONTENTS.PAGE

Comparative ethnography : its legitimacy and its importance.How far is the contemporary savage the counterpart ofprimitive man ? ... ... ... ... ... 3841

Applicability of the general law of continuity and progressto the religious sentiment.Present position of the pro-blem ... ... ... ... ... ... 4146

Lecture II.THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA OF GOD.

(i.) The Worship op Nature, and the Worship of the Dead.Definition of religion.Did religion spring from the emotions

or from the reason ?Have animals religion ] ... 4751Unwarranted extension of the idea of personality.Attribu-tion of all movement to personal agents.Metaphoricallanguage fosters but does not create the illusion.To whatextent do children and savages confound the personal andthe impersonal ? ... ... ... ... ... 5163

Deity implies superiority and mystery.Original distinctionbetween the natural and the abnormal.Deification ofphenomena which man cannot understand or control.Nature-worship.The emotion of fear and the sense ofthe Infinite as religious motives.Worship addressed toan active power with which it is possible to enter intorelations ... ... ... ... ... ... 6371

Confusion of concomitance and causality ... ... 7173Assimilation of dreams to reality.Eifect of dreams in multi-plying the superhuman beings and extending their attri-l)utes ... ... ... ... ... ... 7376

The idea of the " double."Future life.Sources of the worshipof the dead 7782

(ii.) Primitive Rites.I'rayer.Primitive theory of sacrifice.Intimidation of the

gods.Sorcery.Sources of symbolism.Did conjurationprecede propitiation ? ... ... ... ... 82 96


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. TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIU

Lecture III.POLYDEMONISM AND POLYTHEISM.

(i.) Spiritism, Fetishism and Idolatry. PAGEWhen natural objects are adored, it is the personality with whichthey are supposed to be endowed to which the worship isaddressed.This personality is conceived, by analogy withthat of man, in the form of a " double" that can be sepa-rated from its envelope.The distinction between bodyand soul extended to all personified objects.Whatbecomes of the crowd of souls released by the disappear-ance of their visible envelopes,Spiritism.The belief inspirits not necessarily the result of necrolatry ... 97106

Eeli"ious phenomena connected with spiritism.Obsession,possession, talismans, fetishes.Belief that the appropria-tion of an object secures the services of the spirit lodgedwithin it.Sources of fetishism.The idol an elaboratedfetish.Sundry springs of idolatry. Criticism of thetheory that idols were at first symbolic representations.Is idolatry a step in advance ] ... ... ... 106122

(ii.) The Divine Hierarchy.Arrested development and indications of degeneration in the

beliefs of certain peoples.The progressive evolution ofthe conception of God starts from the differentiation of thesuperhuman powers.Preponderance grantedto the regentsof the great phenomena of nature, to the souls of the illus-trious dead, to the genii of species, of social groups and ofmoral abstractions ... ... ... ... 122138

Subordination of spirits to gods.The divine societies modelledupon those of earth.The divine societies of the Indo-Europeans ; of the Egyptians ; of the Mesopotamians ; ofthe Western Semites ; of the aboriginal Americans ; ofthe Chinese 138152


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XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Lecture IV.DUALISM.

(i.) The Struggle for Order. PAGESelfishness of the first gods.Alliance between the gods and

man.Eolations of mythology and religion.How thegods became interested in securing order in the universe 153158Dualism of the superhuman personalities representing the hostileand the beneficent forces of nature respectively.Accen-tuation of dualism as religion advances.Confidence inthe final triumph of the beneficent deities.The idea ofthe cosmic order generated by the spectacle of the regularrecurrence of phenomena ... ... ... 158167

Gradual restriction of the field abandoned to divine caprice.Personifications of the natural order exalted above theancient gods.The supreme god the author and sustainerof the cosmic order ... ... ... ... 168174

(ii.) The Struggle for Good.The absurd and immoral actions attributed to the gods some-

times to be explained as metaphorical descriptions ofnatural phenomena, sometimes as survivals from the bar-barism of earlier generations.Original independence ofmorals and religion.Influence of the religious sentimentin consolidating the social relations ... ... 175179

The divine sanction of the oath.Intervention of the gods inthe ordeal.The gods punish attacks on the comnmnity.Conception of a moral order on tlie model of the cosmicorder 179186

Unpunished violations of the moral order argue either the feeble-ness or the injustice of the gods.Solution offered by afuture life.Conception of the future life as similar to thepresent, as better, or as worse.Assignment of the soulsto different abodes according to their conduct in thisworld.The theory of continuation and the theory ofretribution.Eecompense after death and recompense onearth ... 186-200


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TABLE OF CONTENTS. XVPAGE

Purification of the character of the gods by the assimilationof the moral ordr to the divine order.The attributes ofDeity reduced solely to justice and love ... ... 200203

Lecture V.MONOTHEISM.

Monolatry.National pantheons.Gods attached to the landor the people.Monolatry founded on tlie belief in thesuperiority of the national god.Conception of a supremegod, sovereign of gods and men.Formation of divinegenealogies in the national pantheons.The supreme godconceived as the universal father ,. ... ... 204211The place of metaphysical speculation in the development ofmouotheisn.Monotheism implies superiority not only inpower, but in nature, on the part of the Supreme Deity asconceived by his worshippers.Simplification of the pan-theons by the assimilation of the gods representing analo-gous phenomena.Conception of a single god of whom allother deities are the several members, forms or names.Thetriune God of Egypt.The Semitic monotheism.God asdistinct from matter.Indo-European pantheism.Godevolving the universe out of his own substance.God asthe soul of the universe.The One without a second 211226

The ancient gods before the face of the Only God.Theirtransformation into hypostases, demiurges and mediators.The religious syncretism of the declining Greco-Romanpaganism.The Christian theodicy.God reduced to theabsolute unity by modern philosophy.Opposition ofscience, not to the belief in God, but to the supposition ofinterventions by secondary deities.The divine interme-diaries transformed into abstractions or ideal types.Theeternal and infinite energy whence all things proceed.The eternal power that makes for righteousness.Corol-laries 226244


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XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Lecture VI.THE FUTURE OF WORSHIP AS DEDUCED FROM ITS

PAST.PAGE

Transformation of the motives of worship.What fear andadmiration tend to become.Love takes its bearingsafresh.Disappearance of the lower elements of worship.Divination and sorcery in our day ... ... 245250

Transformation of the expressions of worship. What prayertends to become.Evolution of sacrifice ; its spiritualiza-tion and attenuation ; offerings pass into acts of homage ;the moral transformation of sacrifice.Evolution of sym-bolism.Applications of imitative symbolism.Servicesrendered by symbolism to free inquiry and religious pro-gress.Evolution of the priesthood.Growth and dis-solution of theocracies. Place of the ministry in modernsociety 250277

Is worship destined to disappear ? Societies for ethical cul-ture.Satisfaction demanded by our sesthetic and spiritualfaculties.Religious progress in the churches and mutualrelations of the religions.Religion and the masses.Religion and contemporary Socialism.Need of a strongeraltruistic motive than is supplied by the teachings ofscience or even the love of humanity.Causes of pessi-mism.Danger of a religious reaction ... ... 277288

Brighter prospects for religion.Importance of the question,Has life a goal 1Conclusion : the conception of God inthe future 288295


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Lecture I.0]S" THE METHODS OF EESEAECH INTOTHE PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS

OF EELIGION.

When the first volume of the Hihhert Lecturesappeared, in 1878, the general history of religions wasbut just beginning to take its place in the courses ofadvanced study on the Continent ; and I can wellremember the delight and admiration with whichdevoted as I had long been to this branch of historicalstudyI devoured the pages on which Prof. Max Miillerhad lavished the wealth of his knowledge and the charmof his style in drawing out the lessons to be derived fromthe study of the Eeligions of India.

I little imagined that in thirteen years I was myselfto have the honour of succeeding that illustrious masterin this Chair. And may be I owe so flattering a distinc-tion in no small degree to the efforts I have made, fromthe very beginnings of my work as a writer, to dissipatea prejudice concerning England, and the Anglo-Saxonrace in general, that still lurks amongst us west of theChannel. It is the idea, based on very one-sided obser-vations, that in matters of religion you are at once themost formal and the most superficial of all the nations


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Z I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THElives into two sharply-defined sections, in the first ofwhich (embracing one day out of the seven) you passivelyaccept all the ceremony, discipline, and even doctrine, towhich tradition has attached the label of respectability,whereas in the other (including all the rest of the week)you are completely absorbed by your material interests,and never give a thought to the great Beyond. Thisview can only be held by those who do not know or donot appreciate the strength, of the movement which hasnever been lacking amongst you towards gaining a rationalsatisfaction for the religious needs of the mind and heartof man.The institution of the Hibbert Lectures in particular

has helped to show how this progressive spirit may findsupport in the comparative history of religions ; andperhaps still more to point out how the impartial studyof the very subject that has so long divided men intohostile camps may now serve to bring them together.I would add that these Lectures, after bearing fruit inEngland itself, where it would not be difficult to tracetheir influence upon the temper and the method of reli-gious discussion, have re-acted most happily upon Con-tinental thought itself, in helping to enlarge its horizonand this even apart from the specific services they haverendered to purely historical research. Indeed, all this isso true, that in coming here to expound my views on theevolution of the religious idea, I am in danger, on morepoints than one, of simply returning to you the echo ofyour own thoughts, in place of the original, not to sayrevolutionary, ideas which, for anything I know, may in

quarters be expected of me. For this you have only


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 6to blame your own ethnographers, your own sociologists,and your own historians, upon whom it is impossible forany one to help drawing, in whatever part of the world hemay undertake to treat of the history of religions, andstill more of the history of Eeligion.

The scholars who have devoted themselvesPre-historic , ,development to tlio study of aucieut religious, and spe-of Relit];ions. n ^^ 'ii j. ai,'cmcally my illustrious precursors m this

Chair, have laid before you the methods by whichthe developments of the religious systems underlyingthe worship of the most important civilizations havebeen respectively traced. We are in a position to saythat, in spite of some divergences in detail, the mainlines of this work of reconstruction are now definitivelylaid down. This result is chiefly due to the applica-tion of the historical method ; that is to say, the collec-tion, classification, and interpretation of written evidence,together with the monumental insoriptions which havebeen discovered in such vast numbers during the lasthalf-century.

Nevertheless, the historical method can give us noinformation at all concerning the origins of the mostimportant ancient worships. A glance at the genealogicaltree of the higher religions will at once convince us thatthey all depend upon each other in an unbroken line offiliation, or are derived from a small number of systemsthat rose up independently in the bosoms of sundrygroups of distinct and unrelated peoples. But we cannottrace thein beyond this point by direct observation.


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4 T. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEIn every instance we find that, as we go back through

the ages, written documents become ever scarcer, till theycease altogether, and the ground seems to fall awaybeneath the investigator's feet. And yet at this remotestpoint we already find beliefs and institutions fully recog-nizable, which have maintained themselves right on, acrossthe whole series of intermediate systems, into the heartof the religions of the present day.

These elements, common to all organized religions,may be classed as follows :

1. The belief in the existence of superhuman beingswho intervene in a mysterious manner in the destinies ofman and the course of nature.

2. Attempts to draw near to these beings or to escapethem, to forecast the object of their intervention andthe form it will take, or to modify their action by con-ciliation or compulsion.

3. Eecourse to the mediation of certain individualssupposed to have special qualifications for success insuch attempts.

4. The placing of certain customs under the sanctionof the superhuman powers.

Unless we are to suppose that these factors of the earlyreligions were suddenly formed at a given moment, weare compelled to admit that they must have had a rudi-mentary development before their first appearance inhistory. To re-discover this development, we must appealto psychology, philology, pre-historic archseology, folk-lore, and ethnography. Every one of these sciences hassome contribution to make, and nothing short of the com-


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. Oamongst these, it is comparative or descriptive ethno-graphy which supplies us with the richest material tomake good the deficiencies of historical data.

And, after all, this is but an application of the com-parative method so justly glorified by Freeman as one ofthe most precious acquisitions of our centuryan appli-cation already accepted without question in researchesinto the origins of language, of art, of the family, ofproperty, of law, and even of morals, as is obviousfrom the classical works of such authors as I^echevea,Freeman, De Laveleye, Giraud-Teulon, Sumner Maine,McLennan, Max Miiller, Lubbock and Starcke ; not tomention the numerous sociological works which, espe-cially in England and France, have employed the com-parative method in attempting to retrace the generalcourse of human evolution. Eeligious phenomena, intheir turn, have been subjected to the same treatmentby enlightened theologians such as Professors Tiele andE^ville, who can join hands on this field of research withethnographers like Mr. E. B. Tylor, sociologists likeMr. Herbert Spencer, and students of folk-lore like MrAndrew Lang. I shall endeavour to tread in the foot-steps of these eminent writers in my attempts to recon-struct, so far as possible, the first manifestations of thebelief in the Divine ; with a view to tracing subsequently,in the facts recorded by history, the sequel of a develop-ment which, if we may judge of the future by the past,has not yet reached its goal.By separately examining the chief factorsTheories of -t i- +1 ^ ' fprogress and of of Contemporary civilization, or the cJiiciretrogression.

t\0^


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b I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEglobe, we may establish historically that the march ofcivilization has been progressive ; that is to say, thatthere is a constant and growing tendency to secure thesame results at the expense of smaller efforts, and to utilizethe surplus of forces thus left disposable for the satisfac-tion of more and more exalted wants. It must, indeed,be admitted that this movement is not continuous ; it issometimes arrested, sometimes even reversed ; but takenas a whole, its direction cannot be mistaken. From theother side, palaeontology shows us that before the appear-ance of man upon the earth, life had always been pro-gressive; that is to say, that studied in its great successiveperiods, it reveals a tendency to produce a succession ofcreatures of growing complexity, the crown of all beingfound in man, whether we consider the range of hisintellect and moral faculties, or his power of re-actingupon the forces of external nature. This in itself raisesa strong presumption that humanity in its pre-historicperiod was not exempt from the general law of develop-ment of living beings, and therefore that its originsmust be sought in a state inferior to anything that theoldest evidence of j)rimitive civilization reveals to us.

Pre-historic archa3ology turns this presumption almostinto a certainty. We now know beyond the possibilityof doubt that wherever the super -position of severalindustrial strata has been established, the age of ironwas preceded by an age of bronze or copper, the ageof metals by an age of stone, and the age of polishedstone by one of cut or chipped stone. We discover aperiod at which man, though he had not yet arrived at


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PEE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 7

preserve the memory, already practised agriculture,possessed domestic animals, raised rough monuments ofstone, and gathered into little groups on fortified heightsor in lake cities. Another period reveals itself in a yetremoter antiquity (for it corresponds to the deposits ofthe quaternary rocks), in which men lived exclusivelyby hunting, clothed themselves in the skins of beasts,and dwelt in narrow caves or were scattered in nomadichordes on steppes desolated by the rigour of the glacialepoch. Finally, we can trace a period yet further with-drawn into the twilight, in which, under a gentle andmoist climate, man, the contemporary of the elephasantiquus^ perhaps still ignorant of the use of fire, clothing,and earthenware, but already in possession of a cut fiintmallet or hatchet, realized the state of nature vaguelyconceived by certain poets of antiquity

" Vita ferae siniilis, iiullos agitata per usus :Artis adhuc expers et rude valgus erant.

Pro domibus frondes norant, pro frugibus lierbasNectar erat palmis hausta duabus aqua."^

It is true that because the wielder of flint imple-ments preceded us on the soil of Europe, it does notabsolutely follow that he was our ancestor. At the timewhen the hunters of the reindeer and the mammoth, andperhaps the erectors of the megaliths, occupied this partof the world, is it not possible that the ancestors of theAryans, the Semites, the Egyptians, the Chinese, not tomention the Aztecs and the Incas, may already have beenin possession elsewhere of a semi-civilization far moreadvanced in type? Yes ; but we are justified in asking for

1


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8 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEthe traces of this supposed civilization. It is true thatwe have not yet explored and ransacked the whole planet,but it must be admitted that the chances of any suchdiscovery are diminishing day by day. More than twentyyears ago, Mr. E. B. Tylor could already write, " Thereis scarcely a known province of the world of which wecannot say certainly, savages once dwelt here;" and Iwould add, there is hardly one of which we cannot saywith equal right, " Man has been progressive here."Pre-historic archoeology thus unites w^ith paleeontologyto assure us that, if the golden age exists in the possiblenature of things at all, it is not in the past that we mustlook for it.

It has been asserted that savages have never been ableto rise into civilization except through the instrumentalityof a people already civilized. It is very true that thetransition from savagery to civilization, or even to thedemi-civilization from which we ourselves are admittedgradually to have risen to our present level, has neverbeen actually observed ; but there are excellent reasonswhy this link should be missing. In the first place, untilthey have reached a certain level of culture, nations haveno history, and therefore cannot themselves enlighten usas to their own past ; and as for external observation, assoon as savages come into contact with a superior civili-zation, the latter deflects and absorbs their spontaneousdevelopment, unless indeed it paralyzes it. This much,of course, is obviousthat there are some peoples worseequipped than others for the struggle for life and pro-gress ; nay, perhaps there may be some permanently


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF KELIGION. 9because, in running a race, the most agile are the only-ones that reach the goal, it does not follow that all thecompetitors did not start from the same post, or that thevictor has not had to pass the very points at which hisless fortunate competitors have stopped.

In the second place, we may well ask where savageryends and civilization begins. We can of course lay downa more or less complicated criterion depending on evi-dence collected from industrial processes, ways of living,religious and social institutions, and all the current mani-festations of the moral and intellectual life. But weshall not be able to force all the populations of mankindinto one or the other of the two categories, unless weare prepared to ignore transitional cases. In truth, thedifferent groups of mankind may be arranged on a scalethe bottom of which is lost in the extreme savagery ofthe Bushmen, the Tierra-del-Fuegians, the Samoyeds, theAkkas and the Australians, while the most advancedpeoples of the Indo-European race stand at the summit;and between these extreme limits the gulf seems impos-sible to cross. And yet the space between the succes-sive populations which occupy neighbouring positions onthe scale is almost insensible, and the slightest progressin a given tribe would suffice to raise it to the level ofthose immediately above it. There is, therefore, noreason why Ave should not believe that the same nationmay have gradually scaled all the steps which separatedit from the culminating-point ; and perhaps, even so, thesteps it has already passed may be as nothing comparedwith those which will yet permit the most favoured

civi-


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10 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THElization too is a Jacob's ladder, the top of wliicli wecannot see because it reaches to the heavens.

Point of ^^^ often meets with men, free enoughdepaiture in from preiudices in other matters, who readilythe develop- , , ...ment of admit the extreme barbarism of primitive

' society, but are nevertheless disposed to makean exception in the case of religion. They would havens believe that the ancestors of the Semites, the Aryans,the Egyptians, and the Chinese, or at any rate the ances-tors of some one or other of these races, started with avery simple and elementary industrial and social life,but with pure morals and exalted beliefs, and even infull possession of a monotheistic belief.

In suj)port of this hypothesis, they allege, in the firstplace, that these peoples retain reminiscences of far moreelevated beliefs than those they afterwards held. Butto begin with, the assertion in this form is far too sweep-ing. For the fact is that there are other traditions, quiteas worthy of attention, which relegate the past to a stateof religious ignorance from which the teachings of someheroic or even superhuman founder of civilization firstdrew mankind. And, in the second place, little reliancecan be placed on these legends, either in the one senseor the other. Peoples have asked themselves in everyage whence their knowledge of the gods came; and sincethey were unable to trace it back to any other origin,they naturally concluded that it had been instilled intothem by the gods themselves at an epoch, as Alfred deMusset puts it,

" oil le ciel sur la terre


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 11Moreover, parallel questions have in every age presentedthemselves with reference to arts, letters, sciences, cus-toms, and what-not; and the answer has always beenfound in similar mythical attempts to explain the secretsof the past.The theory of primitive purity has sought to entrench

itself behind a second line of defence constructed fromthe pictures of certain primitive peoples, such as theGermans and the Pelasgians, given by the classicalauthors. But now that we are better acquainted withuncivilized races, we can see that the state of moralinnocence attributed to the infant populations of ancientEurope, reduces itself to simplicity of manners and suchvirtues as commonly prevail amongst the savages of ourown day where they have not been corrupted by pre-mature contact with civilization. As for the absence ofidols, or even of any more definite deities than the vaguenumina of the Italiots, it simply means that the peoplesin question had not yet reached the stage of polytheismand idolatry, and were still dominated by the savageconceptions of nature-worship and fetishism.

Finally, our theorists have not forgotten to appeal tothe lofty sentiments and even the theological reasoningswhich occur in the sacred books of the Persians, Hindus,Jews, and Chinese, to say nothing of some of the Egyp-tian and Chaldsean hymns. But recent researches tendmore and more to dissipate the illusions that were naturalenough in the first enthusiasm awakened by the discoveryof these marvellous literatures. The aureole that sur-rounded them is gone, and we have come to a more sober


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 13Language is now a marvellous mechanism which not

only enables us to register the mutual relations of thingsdown to the subtlest shades, but even guides our minds,from abstraction to abstraction, up to the very thresholdof that inaccessible region, beyond the world of formsand of ideas, where we verge upon the mysterious Eealitythat is above all definition. Yet modern philologicalanalysis takes us back to a time at which language reducesitselfwith the exception possibly of a few onomatopoetic .^vordsto a closely restricted number of sounds andcries, each expressive of a physical action, and thataction performed by man. I need not here explain howthe monosyllabic accompaniments of human actions cameat last to convey the idea of those actions to others, northe part played by the progress of language in leadingthought into conscious possession of itself. It is enoughto note that the phenomena in question fully justify theconclusions, first, that the primitive creators of our lan-guages freely ascribed faculties like their own to all thethings they saw around them, if their manifestationscould in any way be likened to human actions; andsecondly, that their equipment of conscious ideas wasconfined to a small number of essentially concrete notionsembracing actions and physical events of daily occurrence.

This being so, not only must these men have beenincapable of rising spontaneously to such abstract ideasas are suggested to our minds by the words, God, soul,infinite, absolute, self-existence, and the like, but theycould not even have been in a position to comprehendthem had they been suddenly communicated to them from


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 15

Pre-historic Pre-historic archseology, in its turn, takesarchaeology, ^^g y^^ another step, inasmuch as the material

remains with which it deals indicate the existence ofcertain beliefs prior to all civilization. It is true that nosuch traces have yet been found amongst the depositsof the very earliest period in which the existence of manhas been established ; that is to say, in what is known asthe Drift period, which seems to have preceded the greatglacial age in Europe. But we must be on our guardagainst basing any definitive conclusion on this fact.Eemember what happened, in this respect, with regardto the rest of the paleolithic age. There, too, scholarswhose names carried authority maintained that man inthe quaternary period had no religious beliefs, and didnot even pay attention to the dead ; but the discoveriesof the last five - and - twenty years, especially in thecaves of France and Belgium, have established con-clusively that as early as the mammoth age man practisedfuneral rites, believed in a future life, and possessedfetishes and perhaps even idols. A glance at the dis-coveries that authorize these conclusions will perhapsnot be out of place.Man in the I^ the cavo of Spy we can trace througha'^'ramUds thousands upon thousands of years savagefuneral rites, inhabitants whose bones exhibit such an ape-

like character that they have supplied a new link in thedescending scale from man to the animals. Armed onlywith flints to defend themselves against the terrible beaststhat wandered round their retreat, exposed to the rigoursof such a climate as the present inhabitants of thePolar regions can scarcely endure, though supported by


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16 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEresources which in comparison with those of the primitiveinhabitants of Moustiers almost represent civilization,these contemporaries of the mammoth and the cave-bear,whose energies one would have thought would have beenwholly absorbed in the struggle for existence, still foundtime to attend to their dead, to prepare them for theirfuture life, and to offer them objects which they mighthave used for themselves, but which they preferred tobestow on the dead for their use in another life."^ Thecustom of placing arms, implements, and ornaments inthe tombs, may be regarded as general amongst theancient cave-dwellers, as it still is amongst all savageswho bury their dead. It implies the belief in the sur-vival of the personality after death, and the idea that thefuture life will be a repetition of the present, or at anyrate that the same wants will be experienced, the samedangers incurred, and the same enjoyments tasted thereas here. All this was well explained by the ancientPeruvians when, in answer to the question why theysacrificed animate and inanimate objects, and even humanbeings, to the dead, they answered that in dreams theyhad seen men who had long been dead walking about withthe creatures and the objects that had been buried intheir tombs. Certain natives of Borneo go so far as tosay, that if they throw objects that have belonged tothe deceased upon the waves, he will at once come andreclaim them. Amongst the Patagonians, the Comanches,and the Bagos of Africa, the custom of sacrificing all hisbelongings to the deceased is actually pushed so far, that

^ I)e Puydt et Loliest, Lhomme contempoixdn du mammoutli a Spy :


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 17travellers have declared it interferes with the maintenanceof the family and the accumulation of even the smallestcapital.^

Traces of funeral feasts have also been found in thecaves of the mammoth age. We must remember thatamongst all uncivilized peoples these feasts redound, notonly to the honour, but to the welfare of the dead, justas the feasts in honour of the gods are supposed to be ofactual service to them. The natives of the Eed Eiverexpressly declare " that while they partake of the visiblematerial, the departed spirit partakes at the same time ofthe spirit that dwells in the food."^ The observance ofthis custom by pre-historic man carries with it, therefore,the fact that he had already drawn a distinction betweenthe material object and the spirit to which it served as abody ; and further, that he believed in the possibility ofthat spirit quitting its case and surviving it. But stillmore incontestable proof of this belief occurs a littlelater, when the objects deposited in the tombs are brokenor burned, with the idea that they must be destroyed orkilled in order to enable their souls to follow the soul ofthe deceased.

In certain caves, the earliest of which go back to thereindeer age (those of Mentone, for example), the bonesof the dead are painted red with oligist or cinnabar; and

^ De Lucy-Fossarieu, Ethnographie de VAmerique antariiqne, Paris,1884-, p. 151. Capt. Grossman, Report of the Bureau of Ethnography^1879-80: " Smithsonian Institute," Washington, 1881, p. 99. ReneCaillie, Voyage a Temhodou, Paris, 1830, vol. i. pp. 245, 246.

2 Dr. S. G. Wright, cited by H. C. Yarrow in Mortuary Cmtoms ofike NortJi-American Indians, in the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,


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18 I. METHODS OF EESEAECH INTO THEin our own day some of the !N'orth-American tribes, whoexpose their dead on trees, collect the naked bones andpaint them red before finally burying them. An analo-gous custom has been observed amongst the Mincopiesof the Andaman Islands, and the Niams of CentralAfrica.! The explanation of this custom has sometimesbeen sought in the fact that red is the colour of spirits.Thus in Polynesia, painting an object red suffices to makeit tahu, that is to say, the property of the superhumanpowers, and as such inviolable and unapproachable. Butit may well be asked whether, in the funeral rites I havejust described, the red paint was not rather intended toimitate the infusion of bloodthat is to say, the restitu-tion of lifein conformity with the idea so widespreadamongst uncivilized peoples that blood and life areequivalent essences. To paint the bones of the deceasedred would in this case be to assure, or at least to facilitate,the renewal of his existence.^

Another custom to be traced in the caves of CentralFrance from the age of the reindeer downwards, and

1 Cartailhac, La France preMstorique, Paris, 1889, p. 292, DuPouget de Nadaillac, Les decouvertes prehistoriques et les croyanceschretiennes, Paris, 1889, p. 13. Letourueau, Sociologie, Paris, 1880, pp.211, 220 ; Eng. trans, by H. M. Trollope, London, 1881, pp. 224, 233.

2 Thus the ancient Peruvians smeared the doors and the idols -withtlood while sacrifice was being performed in the temples. A. Eeville,Hibhert Lectures, 1884, p. 220. The Arabs of pre-historic times usedto sprinkle the walls of the Kaabah with the blood of victims ; andthe Bedouins of the Sinaitic district still throw blood, drawn fromtheir camels' ears, upon the door of the tomb of one of their mostfamous saints. Ignace Goldziher, Le cidte des saiiits cliez les Musidraansin the Revue de riddoire des religions, 1880, vol. ii. p. 311. Cf. Exodus


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 19gradually spreading as the age of polished stone advances,consists in burying the body, folded up upon itself, sothat the knees touch the chin. It has been maintainedthat the idea was to give the corpse the position takenby the living man as he slept by the fire at night after aday's hunting or war.^ But no peoples really sleep inthis posture : and I incline to the belief that they meantto put the deceased in the position of the infant in hismother's womb. Many peoples believe that life is are-birth, from the Algonkins, who by a touching atten-tion bury little children on the paths most frequented bythe women of the tribe, down to the peoples on bothcontinents who explain family likenesses or cases ofatavism on this principle. For the rest, this customre -discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the tombs ofMycengestill exists in the Andaman Islands, in NewZealand, in Melanesia, in South America, amongst theAfrican Bongos, and amongst the Hottentots. Almostall travellers explain the custom as I have done above.Mr. T. L. Hutchinson, in describing the mummies ofancient Peru, says that "the bodies were generallyplaced in the same position as they are known to exist[in] during the progress of uterine life."^ The idea thatthe earth is the common mother of mankind reappearsin all the mythologies that have made any considerable

1 l.QtoMXi\&iiVi, Sociologie, pp. 207, 208; Eng. trans, pp. 220, 221.2 On the Hottentots, see Peschel, VdlArrkundf., Leipzig, 1874, p. 494,

Eng. trans. J The Races of Man, &c., second edition, London, 1876,p. 460. On the Andamans, E. H. Man, Journal of the Anthropo-logical Institute, 1883, vol. xii. p. 144. On the Araucans, d' Orbigny,L'homme americain, Paris, 1839, vol. i. p. 92.

3 Journal of the Anthropological Insfifut', vol. iv. p. 447.


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 21adores a lizard or a bear, one is likely to think thatprayer and acts of worship addressed to an image of theanimal will please the animal himself, and make himpropitious.

The human figure appears to have been less frequentlyand less successfully attempted. Several examples of itare known, however ; and M. Edouard Dupont found arude attempt at a human figure cut in reindeer-horn inthe cave of Pont-a-Lesse. This figure was perhaps anidol. The same discoverer also found the tibia of amammoth on a slab of sandstone near a hearth belongingto the reindeer age, in a cave of Chaleux. It is impos-sible to deny the character of a fetish to this tibia, for themammoth was already extinct in that locality at the periodin question, and M. Dupont points out that the bones ofgigantic extinct species still play an important part inthe popular beliefs everywhere.^ The Dacotalis and otherEedskins, for instance, carefully collect the bones of themastodon and place them in their huts for the sake ofthe magic virtues which they attribute to thcm.^ Weshould also note the perforated snail-shells, fossils, crys-tals, quartz-stones, and reindeer-horns, deposited in thetombs, and somxctimes even in the hand of the deceased.These objects, none of which are of any practical use,may sometimes have served as ornaments, but must surelyin some cases have been talismans or amulets.

'No doubt all these remains indicate infantile and^ E. Dupont, L'Jiomme pendant les ages de la pierre anx enoirons de

Dinant sur Meuse, second edition, Brussels, 1872, pp. 92 and 205 sqq.2 Ed. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind,


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22 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEgross couceptions ; but nevertheless they show that manwas ah'eady aware of something mysterious and mightybeyond his limited horizon ; that he attempted to con-tract relations with the superhuman beings by which hebelieved himself to be surroiinded, on the basis of anexchange of services ; and finally, that he was alreadycapable of the idea of abstinence, that is to say, of relin-quishing a tangible and immediate advantage in view ofa more considerable but more distant and uncertain one.

Passing to the age of jôlished stone, we see thereligious manifestations which I have just defined takinga more developed and general form ; nor are there wantingsuch new elements as the worship of megaliths, trepanningthe skull, and special veneration of the mallet. ,. , , I shall not enter upon the question, stillMegaliths of . l \L ?the neolithic hotly disputed, of the use of the stones,

" ' erected in lines, found almost all over thetwo worlds. It has been maintained that they weresimply commemorative monuments, like the twelve stonesfrom the bed of Jordan which Joshua erected at thefirst camp of the Israelites after their passage of theriver, to servê, as the Bible supposes, "as a memorialfor ever." ^ I will not deny that some of these monu-ments played the part of mementos, or even of inter-national boundary-marks; but when I see how widespreadthe worship of stones still is amongst uncivilized peoples,

^ Josh. iv. 8. It appears that Avithin recent times it was cus-tomary amongst the Kabyls for the representatives of confederatedtribes each to set up a great stone when they had arrived at an impor-tant decision. If one of the tribes subsequently broke the engagement,its stone was cast down. târtailhac, France prehistoriqne, i>p. 314,


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 23especially tlie worship of stones set up on one end, Iam far more disposed to conclude that megaliths ingeneral are the legacy and the evidence of a veritablelitholatry, whether they were worshipped in and forthemselves, as amongst the natives of India, Malaysia,Polynesia, I^orth Africa, and the two Americas, ^ orwhether they were regarded as the abode or the imageof some superhuman power, like the Bethels of thewhole Semitic race, or the shapeless masses which, asPausanias testifies, the earlier Greeks worshipped insteadof images.^ We shall presently see that worship ofstones set up on end was the first step towards idolatryeverywhere.Man in the age of polished stone, like his paleolithic

predecessor, disposed of his dead in caves ; but whennatural caves were wanting, he made artificial ones,either by hollowing an excavation in the rock, or byarranging four stones, in a sort of rectangle surmountedby a large slab, and covered with a mound of earth.This is the origin of the dolmens, which are nowuniversally admitted to be connected with funeral rites.The only question is, whether they were tombs of thefirst or the second instance ; that is to say, whether thedead were placed in them at once, or whether decom-position was first allowed to do its work. On the latterhypothesis, which is the more probable, the dolmens

^ Myfholor/ie du monde mineral ; legon professee a I'ecole d'anthro-pologie, par Andre Lefevre : in the Revue des traditions populaires iorJSIovember, 1889. Paris.

2 Pausanias, vii. 22, 4; cf. infra.


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24 I. ilETHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEwere only ossuaries, like those still met with in somecemeteries in EurojDean countries. But the very desireto secure a kind of perpetual abode to the incorruptibleelements of the body, is itself only another proof of theimportance attached to funeral rites.

There is a certain detail, frequently observed in thesedolmens, which has not failed to exercise the minds ofthe archaeologists, especially when the dolmens weresupposed to be the work of one particular people. It isthe presence in one of the wallsgenerally the one thatcloses the entranceof a hole not more than large enoughfor the passage of a human head. In the Caucasus andon the coast of Malabar, these holes have given thedolmens the popular name of "dwarf-houses."The hole is too small to serve as a passage for living

men, or for the introduction of the skeleton ; or even forinserting the sacrifices, which moreover would be foundpiled up against the interior wall. The most probableexplanation seems to be that it was intended for the soulto pass through. Numbers of savage peoples supposethat the soul continues to inhabit the body after death,though from time to time it makes excursions into theworld of the living. Now we shall see presently thatamongst these peoples the soul is generally regarded asa reduced and semi-material copy of the body. It there-fore requires a hole if it is to escape from the enclosure.It is for this reason that, at the death of a relative, theHottentots, the Samoyeds, the Siamese, the Fijians, andthe Eedskins, make a hole in the hut to allow the pas-sage of the deceased, but close it again immediately


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 25afterwards to prevent its coming back.^ The Iroquoismake a small hole in every tomb, and expressly declarethat it is to enable the soul to go out or come in at itspleasure.^ At Koulfa, in North Africa, the same ideawas combined with a desire to clear a passage for sacri-fices. They buried the body, in a sitting posture, in around, well-like shaft, into which they left an open hole,and then put cloths and other things close to the mouth,so that the dead man himself could come and fetch them,and take them to others who had died before him,^

Trepanned ^^ ^^ the same desire to secure a wayskulls. jpQj, ^|-^g spirit to pass, which best explains

the curious phenomenon of trepanning the skull, firstobserved, in 1872, by Dr. Prunieres, in the neolithiccaves of Central France ; and subsequently in tombs ofthe same period, in Denmark, Bohemia, Italy, Portugal,North Africa, and the two Americas.^ Some of theseskulls have been trepanned after death ; others duringlife, as apjDeared from the reparative efforts of naturewhich had followed. As for the circles of bone extracted,

^ Compare Frazer, On certain Burial Customs : in the Journal ofthe Anthropological Institute, vol. xv. p. 70; see also Herbert Spencer,Principles of Sociology, vol. i. 94,

^ A. Eeville, Religions des peuples non-civilises, Paris, 1883, vol. i.p. 252.

^ Clapperton, Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, London,1829, pp. 141, 142. Note that the Greeks, too, pierced the soil nearthe tomb to pour libations into it, under the impression that thiswould enable them to reach the dead more easily. J. Girard, Lesentiment religieuse en Grece d^Homere a Eschyle, 1879, p. 182.

* Broca, Sur la trepanation du crane et les amulettes crdnimnes aVfi.poque neolithique : Paris, 1877.


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2G I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEtliev had sometimes been pierced and hung npon aueckhiee. a custom which survived down to the Chuilishperiod.

It wouki appear tliat trepanning is still practised bythe Kabyls. M. de Xadaillac believes that the object isreligious, but 'M. Broca takes it to bo therapeutic. If"we follow the former, we may suppose it intended toallow the soul free communication with the superhumanpowers ; or it might be an ofiering to the gods of a sub-stitute or representative in place of the whole person, outhe principle which rules religious mutilations, from thesacrifice of a finger-joint to the offering of the hair or anail-paring. If we follow M. Broca, it must have beenintended to facilitate the expulsion of the spirit thathad gained enti'ance into the body, and was causingdisorders in it ; conformably to the theory of uncivilizedpeoples that every malady is caused by diabolic or divinepossession. It is evidently with this view that savagesin the Old and the Xew Worlds apply the processes ofmassage and suction to their sick, give them purgativesand emetics, and even bleed and cauterize them. Theefhcacity of such treatment is often real though alwaysempirical, and it is invariably attributed to the departiu'eof the disturbing spirit.The trepanning of the dead is perhaps more difficult

to explain, especially as we can find no similar practiceamongst known peoples. M. Cartailhac, on the strengthof a species of embalming still practised by the Dyaks,thinks its object was to allow of the extraction of thebrain. ^ But one would suppose that such a procedure


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PEE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF EELIGION. 27

must have left some further traces ; and, in any case, itwould not explain the value attached to the severedfragments of the cranium, as amulets. Perhaps the veryobject of the operation was no other than to procurethese precious talismans ; or it may have been to providethe soul with a special passage through which to leavethe body. It deserves notice that the trepanning hasnot been applied indiscriminately to all the bodies inthe same tomb ; that on some of the skulls it must havebeen performed both during life and after death; and,finally, that in some cases the holes thus formed havebeen closed by means of disks evidently borrowed fromother skulls. All these facts are in full hannony withthe hypothesis that trepanning was resers'edas certainfuneral rites and even certain privileged methods ofburial certainly wereto particular individuals, who, invirtue of their rank, their knowledge, or their character,were regarded as superior in nature to their fellows, oreven as holding direct communication with the super-human world.

Worship of ^ ^^^'^ incontestable proof that idolatrythe niaUet. ^^g practised in the age of the lake dwellings

and artificial crypts. In the caves of Mame, Oise, Eure,and Du Gard, an attempt at a female figure has been found,always on the left wall of the ante-cave, which implies adeliberate arrangement. The eyes, nose, mouth, breasts,and even the representation of a necklace, are distinctlyrecognizable.^ This rough representation, which is alwaysthe same, is generally accompanied by the picture of aflint hatchet, or double-headed mallet, sometimes with


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28 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEthe handle. It is not surprising that the man of thestone age venerated the instrument which characterizedhis civilization, the arm which assui-ed him his ruleover nature, and which represented the foundation ofhis power. Do not we still find the Eedskins, thePolynesians, and even the Hindus, offering homageto their arms and their tools ? This worship of dressedflints and a fortiori of the stone hatchet, has beenalmost universal to the human race. And even afterthe discovery of the metals, these primitive implementshave been connected with the lightning and supposedto be stones fallen from heaven. But the representa-tions we are now speaking of force us to ask whetherwe ought not to attach the hatchet to the worship ofsome feminine divinity, whose arm or symbol it was,just as in the tombs of a later age it becomes that ofThor and Taran, the Germanic and Gaulish divinitiesof thunder.i This, however, does not at all imply thatit was likewise the thunder which the men of the ageof polished stone worshipped under the features of awoman; and perhaps the wisest course in the presentstate of our knowledge would be to renounce all attemptsto penetrate the mystery further. And yet if, withouttransgressing my limits, I might suggest an hypothesis,I should ask whether we might not recognize in thisnaive and fragmentary idol the personification of nature,or rather of the earth. As a matter of fact, we findthe earth worshipped in feminine form by all peoples

1 It is interesting to note that the axe reappears in the hand of thethunder-god amongst the Chaldaeans, the Greeks (Zeus Labrandeus),


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 29who have attained a sufficient faculty of generaliza-tion to be able to conceive the idea of such a power.Going a step further, I would even suggest that theassociation of the hatchet with the goddess may wellhave been drawn from some myth of the union of heavenand earth, in which the fructifying powers of the stormwere symbolized by the flint axe. The presence of suchconceptions amongst almost all the peoples who haveattained a certain level of mythological development, ismy only excuse for hazarding this explanation, which isin perfect agreement with all that we know of the reli-gious ideas of the occupants of France, at the momentwhen they come into contact with more advanced civi-lizations.We frequently find on the Gallo-Eoman altars a godgrasping a long mallet, associated with a goddess bearinga cornucopia. Archteologists agree in taking the formerto be Taran, or Taranis, the Celtic thunder-god (cor-responding to the Germanic Thor), who is sometimesLatinized into Dis Pater or Sylvanus. In the latterthey recognize a goddess of the earth or of nature.^The mallet is the emblem of the storm, with its life-giving streams, and was also the symbol of fertility,amongst the Germanic populations. In Scandinavia,when the bride entered the conjugal abode it was cus-tomary to throw a mallet into her lap ; ^ and the Germanminnesinger Frauenlob naively makes the Virgin Maryexplain the conception of the infant Jesus by saying

' Le diexi gaulois au maillet, by Ed. Flouest and H. Gaidoz, in theReveu archeoloijigue for IMarch April, 1890.

* Reveu des traditions populalres, Jan. 1889, vol. iv. p. 23.


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30 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEthat "the smith from the upper land threw his hammerinto her lap."^Most of the rites which I have just explained havealso left their stamp on the age of bronze or copper,and we can even follow them into the first iron age, inwhich we enter almost everywhere upon the field ofhistory.

It will be thought, perhaps, that this harvest ofinformation is meagre enough, and that hypotheses forma great part even of what there is. But the facts wehave been able to establish suffice, if not to re-constitutethe whole religion of pre-historic man, at any rate toshow that he stood on a religious plane hardly superiorto that of the peoples of our own day, who stand midwaybetween absolute savagery and the beginnings of civiliza-tion. You will observe that, to recover the beliefs impliedin our data, we have had recourse to the similar usageswe can trace amongst uncivilized peoples in the presentday, and to the recognized explanations they receive.In like manner, to recover the use of certain pre-historicimplements, we turn to populations amongst whom theirlike may still be found; and indeed the scholars whohave attempted to re-construct the industry, the occu-pations, and the manners of pre-historic savages, havenot hesitated to generalize the conclusions drawn fromsuch analogies with considerable freedom. All I ask isto be allowed to do the same with respect to religiousbeliefs and institutions.

Folk-lore. There is yet another branch of study


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32 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEenter upon a newly -built house, they cut a chicken'sneck and sprinkle the blood in all the rooms. In Poitou,the explanation given is, that if the living are to dwellin the house, the dead must first pass through it.^ Thuspresented, the custom is without meaning ; but it is nolonger so if we bring it into connection with the belief,almost universal amongst peoples who possess the artof masonry, that the soul of a victim buried underthe foundations protects the solidity or guards the ap-proaches of the edifice. And if we combine this beliefwith the principle, no less widely spread, that in thematter of sacrifice (as we shall presently see) the inferiormay be substituted for the superior, an animal for aman, the whole meaning of the ceremony becomesclear. In Germany, it is often an empty coffin that isbuilt into the foundations ; whilst the Bulgarians con-fine themselves to the pantomime of throwing in theshadow of some passer-by. To find the explanation ofthis last trait, we have only to transport ourselves intothe ideas of the numerous peoples who regard a man'sshadow as the spiritual part of himthat is to say, as hissoul. Our own languages bear witness that our ancestorswere of the same opinion. The belief that the deadhave no shadows is found amongst the Negroes of CentralAfrica, as well as in Dante's Purgatory, And the Zulusimagine that there is a crocodile or some other beast inthe water that can draw in a passer-by if it can get holdof his shadow.^

^ Cf. Les rites de la construction : in "Melasine" for Jan. 5th, 1888.2 See Arbousset et Daumas, Voyage d'exploration au nord-est de la

colnnie du Cap, Paris, 1842, p. 12. Compare Journal of the Anthro-


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34 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEThe populace, however, has not a monopoly of sur-

vivals. Try the experiment, as I myself have done, ofasking the mourners at a military funeral why theymake the deceased officer's horse follow the coffin ; andespecially why they make the poor beast limp duringthe funeral procession. Some of them will tell youthey cannot say, and they suppose it has always been so.Others will tell you that it is a tribute to the deceased,and perhaps a way of comj^telling the horse to take partin the mourning. Only one here and there, who hasread a little ethnography, will remember that the sacri-fice of the horse at the funeral is almost universalamongst uncivilized peoples who practise riding. Andindeed we know, from the direct evidence of historians,that it was once practised on a large scale by the Celts,the Germans, the Slavs, and the Mongols. Amongst theCaucasian Ossets it appears in a transition stage, analo-gous to that with which we are acquainted ourselves.They content themselves with making the horse and thewidow circle the tomb three times ; only the womanmay not marry again, nor may the horse serve anothermember of the tribe. In Europe, we confine ourselvesto imitating the effect of hamstringing the horse ; andat the funeral of Prince Baudouin at Brussels, I noticedthat even this piece of useless cruelty was suppressed.Thus the old customs disappear ; but now and then theoriginal feeling which still survives in the popular con-sciousness rises to the surface again, and throws anunexpected light upon the past, like a flame leaping upfrom the embers of a dying fire. Mr. Andrew Lang


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PRE-HISTOEIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 35Xeny, wlio killed her husband's horse when he died,and when reproached with her folly, exclaimed, "Wouldye have my man go about on foot in the next world ?"^

Liturgical Eeligioiisat any rate such as are orga-survivals. njzed into orthodoxies generally declare

war on the superstitions of preceding ages ; but theyare themselves compelled to take under their patronagethe survivals which they cannot uproot. This is theexplanation of traditions and practices, imbedded in rela-tively high religions, entirely foreign to the intellectualand moral atmosphere of their professors. You know withwhat zeal and, I must add, with what success Mr. AndrewLang has applied this principle in explaining the shock-ing and grotesque stories of the Greek mythology. Hehas sho^vn how these myths were formed at a periodwhen the ancestors of the classical Greeks had themanners and ideas of savages. The same observationmay be applied to more than one rite in the worships ofthe present and the past.The saying has often been repeated, that dogma, inas-

much as it represents the fixation of beliefs dominant ata given moment, soon comes to represent the religion, orrather the theology, of f/esterdaf/ rather than to-day; andin the same sense one might say that the cultus generallyrepresents the theology of the day before yesterday^ fornowhere does the conservative spirit maintain itself sotoughly as in religious rites. Here the dominion ofcustom is fortified by the fear of displeasing the Deityby altering the practices which he is himself supposedto have inspired, or the efiicacity of which has been


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3G I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEestablished by long and repeated experience ; and tbnsthere is no religion which does not embrace in its cultusceremonies and symbols borrowed from the whole seriesof previous religions.The lamented Edwin Hatch, in his Hibbert Lectures

of 1888one of the most lucid, conscientious, and com-plete treatises ever published on tlie part played byGreece in the development of Christian dogmas andriteshas shown how the pagan mysteries gained admis-sion, with a new significance, into the bosom of nascentChristianity. ISTow amongst those ceremonies there werecertainly some which classical antiquity itself had bor-rowed from more ancient forms of worship; and it followsthat we may still see certain Christian churches perform-ing ceremonies that Ave may safely say have traversed atleast three religions, and the equivalent of whichper-haps even down to the explanation officially givenmaystill be found on all hands amongst barbarous peoples.I must content myself with citing, as one of the mostcharacteristic examples, the renovation of fire in theoffice of Holy Saturday. The priest, after extinguishingall the lights, re-kindles the Paschal taper by means of aspark struck by the old method of the flint and steel.Does not this ceremony carry us straight back to thesolar or fire rites, which were already more or less touchedwith metaphysical conceptions in almost all the ancientpolytheisms, but which reveal their purely naturalisticorigin in the customs of certain savage peoples, and, forthe matter of that, in the traditions of our folk-lore also ?Formerly the renovation of the fire took place in the


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PRE-HISTOEIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 6iBesurrection), and the fire which tlie clergy had struckfi-om the flint and steel served to re-kindle the fires ofprivate individuals which had all been previously extin-guished. This is the very ceremony which took placeannually at Lemnos in the temple of Hephaistos, at Eomein that of Vesta, at Cuzco in that of the Sun, in Mexicoin honour of Xiuhtecutli, " the Lord of the year." It isthe same which is still observed in kindling the sacrificislfire amongst the Brahmans ; ^ in conducting one of theprincipal religious ceremonies of the Chippeways;^ incelebrating the renewal of the year on the Zanzibar coast ; ^in securing rain amongst the Kafiirs ; ^ on every solemnoccasion amongst the Australians;^ in putting a stop toepidemics in certain remote districts of Europe ; or simplyin celebrating the summer solstice. On the banks of theMoselle, and in other localities of Western Europe, it wasthe custom, on St. Jean d'Et^ (Midsummer-day), to kindlea wheel and then roll it across the fields or the vineyardsto secure a good harvest.^ It was the custom in certainprovinces of the Slavonic and Germanic countries toextinguish all the fires at this same season of the yearthen to fix a wheel upon a pivot and whirl it round till

1 J. C. Xesfield, Primitive Philosojjlnj of Fire, in the Calcutta Reviewof April, 1884, p. 335.

2 A. Keyille, Rcli(jions des peiqjles non-civilises, vol. i. p. 222.3 J. Becker, La vie en Afrique, Bruxelles, 1887, vol. i. p. 36.4 Capt. Condor, On the Bechuanas, in the Journal of the Anthropo-

logical Institate, vol. xvi. p. 84.s E. Trcgcgar, The Maoris, in tlie Journal of the Anthropological

Institute of Nov. 1889, vol. xix. p. 107.6 H. Gaidoz, Le dieu Gaidois du soleil ei le sijmholisme de la roue,


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38 I. METHODS OF RESEARCH INTO THEthe wood caught fire, whereupon every one present tooka light to re-kindle his own fire.

I have selected this rite as an excellent example of theparallel development of one and the same usage on thethree-fold track of organized religions, popular traditions,and savage rites; and, further, because we can trace itback to its original source without wounding any one'sfeelings, or creating too harsh a sense of discord betweenthe meaning now put into a religious ceremony and theideas that first gave it birth. But the same process mightbe followed with reference to far other rites, performedevery day before our eyes. And if such loans are foundeven in the Christian Church, one may imagine how theymust abound in rituals which can have no reason fordisguising their naturalistic origin. We soon come toaccept M. James Darmesteter's assertion, that one neednot search very long amongst the historical religions tofind, often under forms of striking identity, most of theessential elements of the non-historical religions.^

. Here, perhaps, I shall be arrested by thecomparative question : " What right have you thus toetliiiograpliyto be taken Credit savago populations with the preserva-

tion intact of the heritage of primitive reli-gion ? Is not the savage, whom we wrongly call primi-tive, as old as the civilized man ? Has he not as longan ancestral line behind him? Has he not traversed,in the course of ages, an endless series of fluctuations,alternating between progress and decadence, which musthave very greatly modified his original conceptions ?

^ James Darinesteter, Revue critiqtie cVhiatoirc ct de IHterature,


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PRE-HISTORIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION. 39Aud, moreover, the superstitions and the rites of savagesdiffer to some extent from one people to another. Towhich special group, then, shall we address ourselves bypreference in order to re-discover the primitive beliefs ?Amongst some peoples the dominating system is Shaman-ismthat is to say, belief in the power of sorcerers.Amongst others it is Totemism, the worship of animalsor Fetishism, the belief in the supernatural influencesemanating from certain concrete objects. There arepopulations which assign a single soul to man ; otherswhich give him two, three, or even four. Sometimes itis the sun that occupies the first place in the worshipsometimes it is the moon, the heavens

count eugene goblet d'alviella - lectures on the origin and growth of the conception of god (1892)

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